What’s the plan, stan?

Are you a fan of the open plan? No 9 has your traditional mock Victorian layout: front door to a hall, small lounge room at the front of the house, stairs going down the middle, larger dining room at the back, which leads to a kitchen. We don’t have the moolah to be moving stairs, but could knock down the stud walls on either side of the stairs for an open-plan feel. I go both ways: one minute I want light and airy, the next, I need to be able to shut mess away in different parts of the house. What should we do?